We won’t try to repeal all of ObamaCare, says Cornyn

posted at 5:43 pm on March 23, 2010 by Allahpundit

There’s probably something he could have said that would depress his base more than this, but offhand, I can’t think what that might be. He’s trying to reassure centrists here that repeal wouldn’t mean a return to the status quo but merely replacing O-Care with a more moderate GOP-crafted plan — after all, even a stalwart like Pence offered to work with centrist Dems on bipartisan reform — but given the anxiety among the grassroots that Republicans won’t have the political will to roll this thing back even after they return to power, this is pure poison.

Limbaugh warned them yesterday (see here at around 3:55) that the “repeal!” cries had better be more than a campaign slogan. So much for that.

In the wake of the passage of health care reform, nearly the entire slate of Republican senatorial candidates seems ready to run on a repeal of the bill. But now, the lawmaker overseeing their election strategy is softening the message. Rather than promising to scrap the bill in its entirety, the GOP will pledge to just get rid of the more controversial parts…

“There is non-controversial stuff here like the preexisting conditions exclusion and those sorts of things,” the Texas Republican said. “Now we are not interested in repealing that. And that is frankly a distraction.”

What the GOP will work to repeal, Cornyn explained, are provisions that result in “tax increases on middle class families,” language that forced “an increase in the premium costs for people who have insurance now” and the “cuts to Medicare” included in the legislation…

The senator’s comments on Tuesday also included a push to restore funds for Medicare Advantage — an odd political moment, considering the GOP’s self-promotion as the party that trims the fat off entitlement programs.

“Without perhaps realizing it,” writes Ramesh Ponnuru, “Cornyn has come out for tinkering at the edges of Obamacare.” Indeed. I shudder to think what the tea party reaction will be to third-party candidacies now, but the political consequences here are less alarming than the policy consequences. Does Cornyn … not understand that the preexisting conditions exemption will also drive up premiums? If insurers can’t refuse to cover high-risk clients, that risk will need to be spread. And guess who it’ll be spread to. Quoth Ross Douthat:

But to the extent that Cornyn’s vision coheres, what he seems to be proposing is a reform of the reform that keeps the goodies and takes away the spending cuts and tax increases that pay for them.

California, here we come …

Here’s Cornyn’s statement insisting that he was misquoted by HuffPo. Was he?

Some media outlets have misrepresented my position on repealing and replacing the President’s $2.6 trillion health care bill. Make no mistake about it: I fully support repealing this Washington takeover of health care and replacing it with a bipartisan bill that lowers the cost of health care.

“Republicans have long pointed out that there are areas of health care reform where there is bipartisan agreement. Yet, instead of working with Republicans to solve issues of bipartisan concern such as pre-existing condition exclusions, Democrats insisted on a purely partisan bill that included massive tax hikes, trillions of dollars in new taxpayer spending, and cuts to Medicare, while failing to address rising health care costs.

“We will do what Democrats failed to do; start with common-sense measures and craft a truly bipartisan bill that does not raise taxes, does not pillage $500 billion from a bankrupt Medicare program and does not increase premiums on working families.

To some extent we’re arguing semantics here — “partial repeal plus some new provisions” is equivalent to total repeal plus a substitute Republican law that replicates a few aspects of O-Care — but it’s half-assed to identify individual provisions that’ll be kept in place not because they’re cost-effective or because they’re essential to a grand GOP plan but because they’re “non-controversial.” That’s dangerously close to saying they’ll be retained because they’re popular, which, per Douthat, is precisely how California ended up in the mess it’s in. The time has come for hard choices. Are they up to it?

This is a classic example of turn on the ego, turn off the brain and start the mouth. Even if you thought this why would you say it now? Is he really that much of an attention whore? Why poke a hole in a balloon of unprecedented anger and motivation to do whatever it takes to see your party win big in Nov.?

It’s time to take a big friggin swing at everything with a conservative bat. Repeal this piece of crap. Then go after the runaway spending, balanced budget amendment….. dip your toes in the polls of the day friends, and you all will be out on your asses. Are you trying to match the numbers of the dems or what?Do any of you have any political instincts at all?

The thing here is that the Progressive Republicans supported this all along but knew they wouldn’t have to vote for it during the process. They have been on board all along but didn’t want to go public for fear of backlash. These will be the ones who roll over rather than fight. Even if the fight is hard those who do not fight to the bitter end should be treated as Democrats.

The problem that we started out with, wrt pre-existing conditions as with so many others derives from the asinine policy of giving tax breaks to employers to provide health care. Those tax breaks, if extended at all, should have gone to individuals all along!

So here’s what happens: you leave your job and are forced to get a new insurance policy. Bingo, you’re nailed because you have a pre-existing condition! If the insurance policy belonged to you and not your employer, you could take it with you and have continuous coverage.

I remember somebody nailing Bob Dole as being “the tax collector for the welfare state”.
These idiots will never get it until they are on a flight home to their mansions after losing or retiring.
Democrats and Republicans like Cornyn.

Somewhat OT: Missouri joined a couple dozen + states in filing suit against Obamacare today. This is noteworthy because the suit was NOT brought by the State AG (Gomer Pyle voice: Suprise, suprise, suprise!), who happens to be, ahhem, Robin Carnahan…yes, the same Robin Carnahan who is running for the dem nomination to fill Kit Bond’s senate seat. Her likely opponent in the general? Roy Blount. Unless a better alternative to Blount emerges, this will be a choice between barely tolerable and ewwww. I guess “barely tolerable” trumps “ewwww,” but I’m hoping a dark horse, that has the legs to win will emerge.
But I digress. The suit was brought by the democrat Lt. Gov., Peter Kinder.
If you submitted this as an outline for a novel…the publishing house would send it back marked, REJECTED.

Rush had a caller today, a woman who works in the insurance industry. She had a lot of informative things to say about how this will affect their bottom line and the premiums of their subscribers. She confirmed what AP says here and what any thinking person has already figured out: The new burdens being placed upon these companies will drive up premiums, and eventually will drive the insurance companies themselves out of business. She predicted her company would be gone within two or three years. She also predicted that when premiums do inevitably go up, the Democrats will stage another bit of kabuki theater, feigning outrage at their greed for taking advantage of the poor American people, and announce that they will take it all over instead and voila: Single payer. Again, most people here — and indeed anyone with even half a brain (which means, no liberals) — have already figured this out.

The one thing she did share that I didn’t already realize and which makes me nervous is that, although the companies have six months to put the initial changes in place, existing subscribers would not see their premium increases until Jan 1, 2011. She said rate reset at the beginning of the calendar year. Can anyone confirm this? I got a notice of a rate increase last fall and it went into effect immediately; there was no waiting until January. I’m just concerned that if it takes this long to trickle down to the customer — and she said these would be pretty big increases, like 100-300% — people won’t be angry enough in November to vote these demons out of office. We really need the GOP to stay on this, but if the real pain isn’t being felt yet like the electorate, I’m concerned they’ll come off as fear mongerers for telling the truth.

repeal first, then replace in installments that actually bring down healthcare costs. tort reform, allowing purchase of insurance across state lines, medical savings accounts, tax cuts/vouchers for medical insurance, take it all step by step.

Governor Christie of NJ certainly is, and so is Bob McDonnell. And I believe the wave of conservatives that will fight for election in November will be more in their mold than the tired Beltway GOP mold.

I had a phoner with Sen. Mitch McConnell earlier this morning. He says, “‘Repeal and replace’ is likely to be the slogan for the fall elections,” and he expects it will be “a major, if not the major” issue in the fall. If Democrats thought they’d put health care behind them, “the way to guarantee it’s ahead of you is to pass it.”

He scoffs at the notion that Republicans could have forged a meaningful compromise with Democrats: “They would have given us 5 percent of the substance and we would have given them the patina of bi-partisanship. It would have been foolish in the extreme. It would not have been a substantially better product, and the politics” would have been a disaster. In general, he says, “This is the kind of thing that happens when liberals are given too many seats.”

He’s not sure exactly what Republicans could do to start rolling it back if they win the House, but they will begin to try to unwind it “as soon the American people” give them the leverage. In the meantime, he expects “a significant number of Democrats” to vote with Republicans during the reconciliation fight, to try to give themselves cover for having passed the underlying bill.

“There is non-controversial stuff here like the preexisting conditions…”

This is why we have arrived here. Our own freaking side does not get it. Just the fact that he would come out and say this the freaking same day shows how freaking out of touch some of these people are. He could have at least kept his mouth shut and let the wounds heal a little and tested the waters, given it a few months. A few weeks. This is like throwing salt on an open wound. I do not know how else to describe it.
So, we should be thankful he has reminded us the work we have to do.
Ultimately, it never comes down to congress. It comes down to what we as Americans are willing to put up with.

He needs a clue…. On the other hand the amendment to keep the Medicare Advantage plan could be kinda smart, if dems vote against it twice in a row. Maybe they’ll slip it in towards the end when the Dems have their no rythm going strong….

“Thin The Herd” yes indeed and we will. Let us elect REGULAR citizens, people who have proven track records of STANDING up for what’s right and having NO FEAR of retribution. We all have them in our lives, people who have unique and rare abilities to break through the powers that be and lead. Lets encourage these people! As a matter of fact I think we have some true talent right here amongst us in this forum……..lets get er done!

To some extent we’re arguing semantics here — “partial repeal plus some new provisions” is equivalent to total repeal plus a substitute Republican law that replicates a few aspects of O-Care — but it’s half-assed to identify individual provisions that’ll be kept in place not because they’re cost-effective or because they’re essential to a grand GOP plan but because they’re “non-controversial.” That’s dangerously close to saying they’ll be retained because they’re popular, which, per Douthat, is precisely how California ended up in the mess it’s in. The time has come for hard choices. Are they up to it?

Yikes… at the risk of finding myself to the LEFT of allapundit….

I almost used these exact words earlier today. I think I thought better of saying it out loud…

They don’t need to repeal all of it. They need to strip it down to where it should have been in the first place.

In my defense and Allah’s defense too.

Allah didn’t you suggest they promise the Dems who were wavering that they would keep the good parts and jettison the bad if they voted against.

Now this is the plan for November… exactly what Allah suggested last week.

Tell the voters that we keep what’s good and get rid of what’s bad. That is going to be much easier to do than a complete repeal anyway!

Nice stir-the-pot post. Yeah, perhaps Cornyn shouldn’t have named the specifics; on the other hand, covering pre-existing conditions is the one issue most voters want. You think it’s dumb for the GOP to be on board with that? Cornyn’s talking about repeal and replace. The GOP held together through the voting, and they’ll hold together now.

But, you know, if your righteous principles mean you have to stay home on Election Day, then do so. It really served the country well last time around, geniuses.

I have no problems with a Repeal and Replace strategy. Some of the features are fine, but the majority of them are bad.

A health insurance employee was on Rush Limbaugh today and said that come January 1st, 2011, premiums will rise 200-300% due to all the taxes, fees, and penalties placed upon health insurance companies.

No one but the uber rich will be able to afford private insurance (a feature of Obamacare, not a bug). Companies will drop health benefits, and instead pay the fines which will be cheaper. Millions of Americans will lose their coverage.

And in 2-3 years, health insurance companies will be forced to close (again, a feature of Obamacare, not a bug) due to revenue flow.

All of this will happen BEFORE the “benefits” come into play in 2014. Which means there will be tens of thousands of people who will die because they do not have coverage and they cannot afford to pay a doctor directly.

Cartainly the R’s are mostly not up to it….because the US is not up to it.

The very fact that polling says that the pre-existimg conditions stuff is dis-liked shows that the average American knows nothing about insurance or risk. They have come to think that everyone has a right to get treated if they get sick.

The only thing the R’s can do is a massive, multi-year, educational campaign to stand up against the rage of the leftist media. They would be called racists, extremistists by the media, the national media, the local media, the throw away papers that show up on your lawn.

What are the odds of that? close to zero.

Axelrod has already set the media on its course. Anytime there is any peep against this they will find someone to claim that they would be dead without O care.

The Left and the Media do not care what is true or false…the ends justify whatever means are needed.

A little ticked off at people? Are you going to defend this man to the death?

upinak on March 23, 2010 at 6:00 PM

Nope, I will be the first to come down hard on the guy. He could have used a better choice of words, and with Crist, he jumped too early, but that was the mindset then.

The newsies are looking for some rabid comments and one from him would have done more to hurt the cause than help.

This isn’t about making you feel good today…this is about November 2010 and November 2012. The reps could sweep the senate elections and thanks to the rules in Obamacare, there wouldn’t be enough votes to repeal it.

Don’t jump on me but I read on Ace that the Democrats front loaded things to kick in that the public likes. It was done on purpose. Congressman King has a bill ready that would retain the public popular pre-existing condition clause and a few others.Makes sense.

One the 235th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s iconic “Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death” speech, Barack Obama signs into law an unconstitutional power grab, disguised as “health care reform” that steals every single American’s freedom and liberty and establishes a central command and control government that will have total control over every aspect of your life, totally usurping the United States Constitution that our founders shed blood to establish.

Repeal, replace … then start dismantling the tools the communists have implemented that has led to using taxpayer money to fund their operations. Stop the funding of special interest groups with taxpayer money

He’s just trying not to be stupid enough to write the Democrat ads for them. The Democrats ads will take the most popular part of the bill, the part that conservatives object to least, and make ads that say this is what Republicans hate most about Health Care Reform.

As a Texan, I am ashamed of this. I just send a greeting to Senator Cornyn:

Your Message:

Senator Cornyn, I was very disappointed to read about your position in regards with repealing ObamaCare, the exact quote: “We Won’t Call For Repealing All Of Health Care”. This very troubling to me and many many Texans I know. Please be assured that I will do everything in my power to defeat your re-election if you do not immediately retract your statement and declare you will repeal ObamaCare, period.

Republicans have long pointed out that there are areas of health care reform where there is bipartisan agreement.

Enough already. No more compromise, compromise got us to this point over the last 80+ years as more and more of our rights and liberties have been compromised away. NO MORE. Never, ever, EVER forget, the people “on the other side of the isle” who are trying to shame you into going along, to “meet in the middle” are the same peeps that are trying to make you a slave to an all-powerful state. My rights and liberties are no longer up for grabs as a barganing point some politicians “bipartisan compromise” talking point.